Greenery from winter storms increase likelihood of wildfires

Goodyear Battalion Chief Russ Braden stood among the yellow daisies, lavender lupines and bright-orange poppies that blanket the open desert alongside Lake Pleasant north of Phoenix.

Most visitors would marvel at the colorful natural display. But Braden, like most firefighters trained to fight wildfires, saw something else.

"Yes, they're wildflowers. Yes, they're beautiful. Yes, they're weeds," Braden said, pointing to the blooming colors scattered among saguaros, paloverde trees and desert shrubs. "Every one of these (firefighters) out here looks at this stuff, the green carpet on the mountains. We look at that and think, 'Yeah, it's going to be a long season.' "

This year's wet winter has brought an explosion of vegetation in metro Phoenix and surrounding deserts. Many urban mountains, such as the McDowell Sonoran Preserve in Scottsdale and Phoenix's South Mountain, are noticeably green.

The verdant landscape has local fire departments preparing for what could be a dangerous Valley brush-fire season during late spring and summer as temperatures soar, the air remains dry and healthy plants whither into dried shrubs.

The moisture, which brought a heavy snowpack to the Arizona high country, most likely will have an opposite impact on the fire season in the state's forests, as ground moisture is retained amid lower temperatures for a longer period, Braden said.

In the Valley, officials are warning residents that wildfires are not limited to remote desert areas but also occur inside city limits. The situation is especially dangerous in areas where houses are near vast stretches of open desert, such as northeast Mesa in the East Valley or Buckeye in the far West Valley, and some of northern Scottsdale.

"This stuff is going to dry out," Braden said as he kicked desert grass with his boot during a wildfire-training session at Lake Pleasant last week. "These plants are designed to grow for a short season. . . . What we're really anticipating in the lower elevations, 5,000 feet and below, is an active fire season in the desert."

"We will have a fire season every year," Ford tells them. "We're a desert. It's going to be hot and dry. The fire season will either come from flash fuels like weeds and invasive plants or from the large trees like paloverdes that are so dry that they are tinderboxes."

Officials with the National Weather Service office in Phoenix say it's too early to tell with any certainty how moisture will trend in the region from now through summer. The state's summer rainy season, or monsoon, normally sets in during July and August.

"Climatological predictions for the monsoon are just in their infancy," said Mike Bruce, a meteorologist with the office. "Unlike winter precipitation, where we have a decent signal for El Niño versus La Niña years, there is no strong signal for the monsoon."

But Bruce agreed that as soon as 100-degree days set in, this year's overgrowth will become problematic. "When you have a wet winter, your greater fire threat tends to be in the lower elevations," he said.

Scottsdale fire officials say recent prevention efforts are one reason local firefighters have not fought a major wildfire since 2005, when the Cave Creek Complex Fire scorched 248,000 acres across the north Valley from Bartlett Lake to New River.

"It really brings it home when those residents were standing outside their homes at night, watching the fires. And they're thinking, 'Did we do enough?' At that point, it's too late," Ford said. "What we're asking folks to do is give my guys a chance. If their maintenance people can't get through to the back of the house, my fire guys can't get through to protect that house."

Ford works with individuals and homeowner associations. Among those he has met with this year is Troon North, where multimillion-dollar homes are built at the foot of the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, in the shadow of plenty of open desert.

The community has been taking steps to prepare for this year's fire season.

For the past year, Ford guided about half of the Troon North community through clearing plans. Guidelines include thinning the first 3 to 5 feet of vegetation from a home's outside wall.

"If we get a fire coming from the mountain, we want it to slow down at the 15 feet and the last 5 feet to stop it," Ford said. "We're trying to break those solid-fuel paths from the desert to backyard to the house."

In July 1995, lightning sparked a brush fire that raged out of control in the McDowell Mountains, forcing 300 homeowners to evacuate Troon and threatening the Rio Verde and Fountain Hills areas.

Fire officials have been aggressive with annual prevention measures in the years since then to avert such an event, but brush fires have remained on ongoing threat. In 2007, for example, the city recorded 34 brush fires, mostly small and controlled quickly.

As work has progressed this year in Troon, many residents recognize the importance of the effort, said Bernie Hay, vice president of the Troon homeowners association.

"Everyone understands the need for it," Hay said. "They recognize the purpose and value that it will help prevent if a fire comes close to that area."

Cody Boretsky, an engineer with the Gila River Fire Department, mans a hose during wildland-firefighting refresher courses held recently at Lake Pleasant. Firefighters in and around the Valley are bracing for a bad brush-fire season.